James Stockdale pushes a version of an idea that I have long advocated: let congressmen work from their home districts instead of gathering around the great lobbyist water hole of Washington, D.C.
I wrote long ago about the desirability of breaking up the executive branch and distributing it around the country. With modern information and communications technology, there's no reason that the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, ad infinitum shouldn't be headquartered in places like Omaha or Charlotte or Phoenix. The rent's cheaper, it would create more jobs outside of the capital, and it would serve as a symbolic, but important, dilution of centralized power.
And frankly, I'd love to see my agency headquartered in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. Top that for a cool address!
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You could even argue the security advantages of that.
ReplyDeleteNo chance of all those Democrats being wiped out in one hit.
Oh, wait...
Drain, Oregon.
ReplyDeleteSmitty: An excellent spot for the U.S. Treasury!
ReplyDeleteI like it! Spreading government around like that would also give ordinary Americans a gander at what actually goes on. Which is why it'll never happen.
ReplyDeletewv: barac... Seriously?
Ya could stick the State Department in French Lick Indiana. Mission statement and name compatability, total match.
ReplyDeleteYojimbo: Ok, mister, where have you been? El Cid and I were wondering 'cause we hadn't heard from you in quite a while.
ReplyDeleteBuzzard's Roost in Ohio, for the IRS?
ReplyDeletehttp://hiramtom.blogspot.com/2007/09/buzzards-roost.html
YOJIMBO'S BACK!!! Cancel the APB!
ReplyDeleteYOU, Sir, have been sorely missed...wondered about...and even worried about by some.
It's good to be back,er, I think. Had to devote a great deal of time and attention to She Who Is Never Wrong. All the things Paco had to do for Mrs Paco has been SOP for me for quite awhile. By the time I got done with all of that and then got my market work done I was just too tired to do anything else. It may shock you to know that I'm not getting any younger.
ReplyDeleteBesides that, I used to buy all my pithy ditty posts at Walmart. Awhile back they changed suppliers from a firm in Cucamonga to one in .......Waziristan! Cut the limb off on the wrong side they did.
Yojimbo: Sorry to hear about Mrs. Yojimbo; hope everything turns out all right.
ReplyDeleteTold ya' Yo. Ya' just can't go messin with a private di, uhh detective.
ReplyDeleteMake that a hugh double ditto Yojimbo on the Mrs. Yojimbo
Wal-Mart, eh? Thinking back, I do remember those "pithy ditty posts" in reading Mao's Little Red Book.
Paco, that's an idea that is way overdue for execution. I don't known how many times I've had to deal with some bureaucrat inside the Beltway who had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Some of them spent their entire career in DC.
ReplyDeleteForcing a little mobility on 'em would be a good idea.
Lickskillet, Tennessee
ReplyDeleteGoogle it!
I suggest Max, N. Dakota for the IRS HQ.
Anyone for Swastika, Ontario?
ReplyDeleteCheers
Since I am not too far from this site right now, how about Freedom, Wyoming?
ReplyDeleteI can't which Federal agency might be headquartered there, but they have an interesting industrial base there.
How about Muleshoe, Texas, where the cluebats come in two-by-fours.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Yojimbo. I hope the Mrs. is doing better.